USD Magazine, Fall 2002

Although they also were expected to dress properly - jeans and casual shoes weren't allowed in class - they had no curfew, few restrictions on visitation in the dorms and relatively freewheeling social lives. The men hosted almost all campus dances and parries, either at the concrete band shell where Guadalupe Hall now stands, or at The Lark, a basement cafeteria and coffee– house in Serra Hall. For a time, the men even made USD a hot spot for locals, host– ing dances at the Sporrs Center gym and putting the profits into student government coffers. The practice ended, though, after fights broke out at several events and damage lawsuits were filed against the university. In addition to parries and dances, the men constantly brought students from both colleges together for an array of social events. "We were more prepared for the merger than the school itself was, because among the students, everyone knew everyone," Saccler says. "Between the film forum, the speakers series and the sports events, there were so many organized activities chat the separation wasn't apparent to students." In March 1969, while official talk of a merger was still in the early stages, students took the lead and voted to combine the college's student governments, and in May 1969 published their first joint yearbook. That same month, the Vista student news– paper summed up student sentiment in a story that said: "The CW and CM appear to be a single unit in the minds of many Catholics in che San Diego area." We Can Work It Out Although the process of joining the two col– leges started on campus in the fall of 1967, the seeds of the merger were sown halfway around the world, in 1965. Among the documents generated at chat year's Second Vatican Council, held in Rome, was a Declaration on Christian Education chat called on Catholic colleges and universities to "unite in a mutual sharing of effort."

In the United States, the Vatican directive dovetailed with the atmosphere of the lace 1960s, when society began to break down barriers among races, classes and genders. Coeducation quickly became the norm for colleges and universi ties, even chose chat traditionally served only one gender. "I thought right away chat we should be one school, because we shared so much - right down to the architecture - and because each college had unique academic strengths," says Sister Nancy Morris, College for Women president from 1966 to 1971. "But the main point was, we had to change with the rimes. " The biggest problem facing the separate colleges was finite teaching resources. Each had areas of top-notch academics - the women's college was particularly strong in languages and fine arrs, while the men's college excelled in math and physics - but neither had the ability to provide the full array of courses desired by students. The issue became critical in the late 1960s, when both colleges began to lose signifi– cant numbers of students, who transferred to coeducational universities with greater academic offerings. The need to go coed in the classroom was very apparent to Morris and the Rev. John Baer, College for Men president, who in 1967 signed a document that formally launched the colleges on the path to the merger. Called the "Reciprocal Course Agreement," it allowed, on a limited basis, male and female students to register for classes at either college. The blending was an immediate hie. More than 200 students cook advantage of the cross-registration in the fall of 1967. By the following year, the practice was made permanent and nearly half the student body participated. "It was a big success," says history Professor Iris Engstrand, who came to the College for Men in 1968. "The guys, of course, wanted to have the girls in their classes, but almost all the students looked forward to being together. A lot of derails

Students expressed the spirit of the times through fashion.

had to be worked our, but everyone saw right away chat it was better." Many of chose derails involved redrawing the lines of control - who would be in charge of the various departments, who had authority over specific administrative areas. The law school, which to that point had existed independently, was incorporated into an overall university structure, and university– wide appointments were made in previously separate areas such as business affairs, admis– sions and financial aid. The students, however, were only periph– erally aware of the behind-the-scenes maneu– vering. Their desire to remain together pushed faculty and administrators to move the process forward. "We lee the kids mix in classes before all the academics and the politics were hammered out," Morris says. "The whole structure had to be changed, bur because it already had begun co happen, most of the changes came from the grass roots, not from above." Morris attributes the success of the struc– tural changes to careful planning and pain-

ADate with Destiny

March 1967 - Talks on academic coopera– tion between the College for Men and College for Women begin. Aprll 1967 - Women's president and men's president sign a"Reciprocal Course Agree– ment" allowing students to take classes at either college. March 1968 - Study recommends merger. Faculty in psychology, biology and math first to develop joint curricula.

June 1968 - First joint commencement. School of Theology moves to Menlo Park, Calif. August 1968 - Identical academic calendar and class times established. September 1968 - Bookstore and food serv– ices departments combined; men and women take meals in College for Women dining room. Mathematics is first department to combine faculties and curriculaunder one chair.

January 1969- Despite differences in grad– ing policies, the registrar's offices arecom– bined. February 1969 - Joint admissions policies established. Creation of first all-university aca– demic department, Department of Religious Studies. March 1969 - Students vote to merge stu– dent governments. First joint yearbook pub– lished.

May 1969 - Management study commis– sioned by Society of the Sacred Heart, recom– mends society endorse unification. July 1969 - Contract services, maintenance and security combined. Admissions and finan– cial aid offices combined. Creation of second all-university department in education. January 1970 - First joint meeting of men's and women's boards of trustees, who agree to search for one president.

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